Panthers baseball schedule released

With the weather starting to get colder, and the college basketball season right around the corner, the last thing anyone is thinking about is baseball. But it is time to think ahead and get your calendars ready, as the Milwaukee Panthers released their baseball schedule today.

One thing that stands out from this year’s schedule that is unlike any previous season is that the Milwaukee Panthers will host the Horizon League Conference Tournament for the first time in school history at Kapco Park in Mequon.

I am sure if you are a Panthers fan, you are already hoping to be able to watch them win a conference title at home, but before we get to far ahead of ourselves, here are another few notes about the regular season schedule.

The Panthers will open their regular season in Bakersfield, California as they will take on CSU Bakersfield in a four game set starting February 14th. The Roadrunners finished last season 37-22 and 18-9 in the Western Athletic Conference.

Once they are done with the four game series in California, they will then travel to Port Charlotte, Florida to take part in the Snowbird Classic against four difficult teams. They will face Omaha (27-22 last season), Ball State (31-24 last season), Saint Louis (41-21 last season) and Kansas (34-25 last season).

While all four of these games will be a challenge, possibly there biggest test will come against Kansas State as they play three games in Kansas starting February 28th. The Wildcats won the Big 12 regular season championship, and made a run in the NCAA tournament as they made it to the Super Regional.

One thing you might have noticed on the schedule as well is that Panthers play at UIC in the new Curtis Granderson Stadium at the beginning of March, but these games will not count towards conference play, instead this will be considered a non-conference matchup. They will begin conference action in Valparaiso, as they take on the Crusaders in a three game series beginning March 14th.

It will not be until March 26th that the Panthers finally play at home against Edgewood in a one game set. Then they will play their first home conference series against UIC beginning on March 28th.

One other small note to the home schedule is that the Panthers are still working on setting a day to play at Miller Park, and that will be finalized closer to the beginning of the season.

The Milwaukee Panthers will be tested early on in the season, but the Panthers do have some key players returning from last seasons regular season conference championship team including Horizon League Player of the Year, Mike Porcaro. Although the season is still far away, it is hard not to be excited for the season to begin after seeing their schedule.